Elton John has sold more than 250m records since launching his career, aged 15, as a pub pianist at the Northwood Hills hotel, close to the council house in Pinner where he grew up. Since then, his songwriting partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin, formed in 1967, has produced some of the best known records in pop-rock history, including Rocket Man, Tiny Dancer and Candle in the Wind.His collaboration with Taupin continues on his 30th solo album, The Diving Board, produced by T-Bone Burnett, which he has described as "the most piano-oriented album of my career".

THE RECORD MY MUM PLAYED TO ME

My mum always used to buy a record every Friday. She came home and she had the 78 of Elvis Presley, and she said, "I heard this in the record shop and I've never heard anything like it!" She played it to me and I'd never heard anything like it either. It was weird, because, about 10 days before, I'd had my hair cut in the local barbers, where I went as a little boy, and I'd noticed a Life magazine. I was reading this article on a man who looked like an alien but was so handsome – I'd never seen anything like him, and I put two and two together and said, "That was the man I saw in the magazine!" So that was the record that really changed everything.

THE SONG THAT INFLUENCED HOW I PLAYED PIANO

Up until this song, the piano playing that I had heard had been more sedate. My dad collected George Shearing records, but this was the first time I heard someone beat the shit out of a piano. When I saw Little Richard at the Harrow Granada, he played it standing up, but Jerry Lee Lewis actually jumped on the piano! This was astonishing to me, that people could do that. Those records had such a huge effect on me, and they were just so great. I learned to play like that.

THE RECORD THAT I LISTENED TO WITH BERNIE

The piano playing on this track was by a guy called Larry Knechtel. Apart from it being one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, the piano is just sublime. Bernie and I used to listen to that whole album on headphones. When it's sung by Aretha Franklin, this is just the most amazing song. But the piano playing made it, for me: it stayed with me for ever. I once saw them sing at the Royal Albert Hall – it was just a magical time.

THE SONG THAT INTRODUCED ME TO AN IDOL

When I heard that voice, I just went "Oh my god". Then I met Leon. He was my idol and I went to America and I toured with him. I played second on the bill to him and he was so nice to me. Instead of being offhand with me, and jealous, he was so supportive and encouraging and I played on stage with him. Many years later, I paid him back by making a record called The Union and salvaging him from the waste bin of life, because everyone had forgotten about him and I was so angry about it.

THE ONE THAT MADE ME SEEK PERFECTION

The song is incredible, but the piano playing, by Bruce Hornsby, is sublime; it's perfection. Hornsby is one of the best pianists – if not the best – out there. I love sad songs, and Bonnie's voice… I could listen to her singing the phonebook. I always veer towards her songs, and if there's a piano playing on it I just go nuts.

THE SOUNDTRACK TO MY HOLIDAYS

This is probably one of the greatest albums ever made. David [Furnish] and I have a very small apartment in Venice, and it's a tradition that every time we go there, before we do anything else, we put Songs in the Key of Life on and look out the window. Living for the City [from Wonder's Innervisions album, of 1973] is also a brilliant song, a brilliant groove. To me, he's one of the most inspirational performers, songwriters and musicians there has ever been.

THE SONG THAT WAS DIFFICULT TO RECORD

I did a duet with Kate Bush on this track for her last album. That session with her was hard, because she doesn't write easy songs. She's a complex songwriter and this is a weird song, but I love it so much. I'm so proud to be on a Kate Bush record; she's always marched to the beat of her own drum. She was groundbreaking – a bit like a female equivalent of Freddie Mercury. She does come out socially sometimes and she came to my civil partnership occasion with her husband. There were so many stars in the room, but all the musicians there were only interested in saying, "You've got to introduce me to Kate Bush." I remember Boy George saying, "Oh my God, is that Kate Bush?" I said, "Yeah!"

For our latest visit to Rock's Backpages – the world's leading collection of vintage music journalism – here's an interview with Elton John that first appeared in Rolling Stone in 1970, when the fledgling star was on the verge of making it big in America